Making a Reading Table – Part Eight

I once had a great little smithy at the back of my restoration workshops where I used to forge all my own catches, clasps, hinges, locks and nails etc. I could whip up a replacement item in steel at the drop of a tri-corn hat. Alas no longer.

Hand wrought H-hinge and nails on a reproduction elm bacon cupboard.

I decided I would like to attach a steel triangle to the bottom of the pillar and claw after all, but I was unsuccessful in finding a smith to forge a facsimile triangle at reasonable cost. I eventually spoke with a local metalworker last week who said he could plasma-cut one and would drop it round to me. In fact he dropped off two “… in case you make a mess of one”!

I attacked the triangle with an angry grinder and files to impart a ‘forged’ appearance. The thickest area is the centre at 3/32″ (2.4mm) diminishing along the length of the flattened D-shaped legs. The edges taper off to roughly 1/64″ (0.4mm) thick.

One of the bare steel triangles.

I used a hammer and the anvil horn to form one of the triangles to the curvature of the upturned claw, stopping frequently to check for fit. When satisfied, I drilled and countersunk the remaining holes and tidied the whole with a file.

The triangle shaped to the under side of the pillar and claw.

Prior to attaching the triangle to the table, it is now undergoing an accelerated rusting process which will take a few days to achieve the desired depth of corrosion.